Portable electronic devices, such as smart phones, personal digital assistants, laptop computers, tablet computing devices, and the like often are equipped with cameras. When a user takes a photo or video with the camera, the viewer may wish to photograph an area that is larger than the camera's field of view. In this situation, the user may photograph multiple adjacent fields of view and join the images together into a single larger, or panoramic, image. However, if the camera's pan or tilt changes between photos (i.e., if the camera moves left, right, up or down), the images may not match together well when joined together.
Measurements of positional change also may be important to other devices. This document describes methods and systems that can help monitor positional changes on an electronic device.